losthighwayz

klezman wrote:I met a friend at Harvest Moon the other day and was handed a bottle of this to try. Good thing I drank it over the last couple days, eh?

Right after removing the wax cork topper (not a wax-dipped top, just a small disc of wax...not to worry for those of you who hate wax seals) I poured molarchae and myself a small glass. She can put up her own notes later, so here are mine. Colour was brilliant, limpid brick red. Maybe with a slight blueish hue. The aromas were not entirely what I expected from an Oregon Pinot Noir: cherry, earth, a bit of spice. Letting it sit for 30 seconds some stewed strawberry came out. I didn't get a hint of the mushroom aromas I often expect. First sip I was astounded at how bright and lively this wine was. The acid was brilliant with the flavours coming form the pomegranate and strawberry axis. There was some minerality and zippiness on the sides of my tongue and it left me with a bit of a sensation of chalkiness. The finish was *long* and primarily mushroom with a hint of smoke. The residual sensation on my tongue lasted what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably more like 30 seconds. Alcohol is labeled 14.5% but I'd have guessed closer to 12.5%.

About half an hour later, the second glass was poured. My first impression was that it hadn't changed in character at all, although all the previous notes had intensified somewhat. I suppose that was a good sign of things to come. It went decently well with a tomato-based pasta sauce, much to my surprise, although that did tend to bring out the minerality in the wine. The one thing that did continue to evolve was that the fruit started to get slightly muted and the wine got more muscular as it sat there in the glass.

After glass #2, recorked the wine using a nifty device we can talk about another day. It sat there on the counter until I arrived home from work tonight at 8pm (yeah, a long day) at which point I couldn't wait to open it and see how it evolved.

I was not disappointed. It had gotten bigger and burlier with its day of rest. The chalky quality and spiciness had increased while a mushroomy quality had asserted itself a bit more. Excellent. After being open for another half hour or so, it continued to open up and seemed to develop some complexity. The bottle didn't last long tonight...it's joined the other dead soldiers.

Bottom line: at $20/bottle it's a fair price that provides moderate to good value. At $13.33/bottle, this is approaching D'Ontspille le Black for QPR. It's not 1er Cru Burgundy, but what is for $13? If you like your Pinot Noir to taste and feel like Syrah, this is not for you. If you prefer a Pinot with a little bit of grace and elegance at a lighter weight then you will certainly be happy with your set from Winter's Hill. It's likely not one for the ages, but I suspect this will improve for a few more years yet but will provide much pleasure now. PnP for maximal lightness and let it air for a little while to bring out its more muscular side.

Thanks for the detailed notes! One question: would you say this is coser to typical Oregon or Sonoma Pinto? Or somewhere in between? Did you try the Swami offered here? Thanks

wintershillvineyard

jhkey wrote:Thanks for the notes Klez and bsevern. This looks to be my style of Pinot, and finding decent PN in this price range can be quite challenging if not maddening. Now, do I buy a full case????

EDIT: Ahhhhhh!!!! No shipping to GA! Wow, it's been a long time since I got blocked at the gate. Strange, since we are one of the top wine buying states and our licencing process is not expensive or arduous. Oh well!

wintershillvineyard

klezman wrote:I met a friend at Harvest Moon the other day and was handed a bottle of this to try. Good thing I drank it over the last couple days, eh?

Right after removing the wax cork topper (not a wax-dipped top, just a small disc of wax...not to worry for those of you who hate wax seals) I poured molarchae and myself a small glass. She can put up her own notes later, so here are mine. Colour was brilliant, limpid brick red. Maybe with a slight blueish hue. The aromas were not entirely what I expected from an Oregon Pinot Noir: cherry, earth, a bit of spice. Letting it sit for 30 seconds some stewed strawberry came out. I didn't get a hint of the mushroom aromas I often expect. First sip I was astounded at how bright and lively this wine was. The acid was brilliant with the flavours coming form the pomegranate and strawberry axis. There was some minerality and zippiness on the sides of my tongue and it left me with a bit of a sensation of chalkiness. The finish was *long* and primarily mushroom with a hint of smoke. The residual sensation on my tongue lasted what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably more like 30 seconds. Alcohol is labeled 14.5% but I'd have guessed closer to 12.5%.

About half an hour later, the second glass was poured. My first impression was that it hadn't changed in character at all, although all the previous notes had intensified somewhat. I suppose that was a good sign of things to come. It went decently well with a tomato-based pasta sauce, much to my surprise, although that did tend to bring out the minerality in the wine. The one thing that did continue to evolve was that the fruit started to get slightly muted and the wine got more muscular as it sat there in the glass.

After glass #2, recorked the wine using a nifty device we can talk about another day. It sat there on the counter until I arrived home from work tonight at 8pm (yeah, a long day) at which point I couldn't wait to open it and see how it evolved.

I was not disappointed. It had gotten bigger and burlier with its day of rest. The chalky quality and spiciness had increased while a mushroomy quality had asserted itself a bit more. Excellent. After being open for another half hour or so, it continued to open up and seemed to develop some complexity. The bottle didn't last long tonight...it's joined the other dead soldiers.

Bottom line: at $20/bottle it's a fair price that provides moderate to good value. At $13.33/bottle, this is approaching D'Ontspille le Black for QPR. It's not 1er Cru Burgundy, but what is for $13? If you like your Pinot Noir to taste and feel like Syrah, this is not for you. If you prefer a Pinot with a little bit of grace and elegance at a lighter weight then you will certainly be happy with your set from Winter's Hill. It's likely not one for the ages, but I suspect this will improve for a few more years yet but will provide much pleasure now. PnP for maximal lightness and let it air for a little while to bring out its more muscular side.

wintershillvineyard

bsevern wrote:I just happened to have a bottle of this in my ever evolving dynamic cellar

I PnP'd this bottle. It had a lovely perfumed nose of brandied cherries, crushed strawberries, tar, and black olives.

After just a few minutes in the glass, time to taste! Very tasty indeed with well focused sweet red fruit on the palate (think ripe cherries), with hints of vanilla, and a nice tartness. This wine coats your mouth with lots of pure fruit! It's medium bodied, very well balanced with good acidity, fine complimentary tannins, and a medium+ finish.

It's not complex, but it's a very enjoyable, varietaly correct Pinot Noir that went very well with coconut prawns. I suspect this will get better (more complex) with a few more years in the bottle, but it's drinking well now!

For under $15 a bottle, this is a killer deal IMHO. Most value play Pinots do not bring the thunder (heck most don't even taste like Pinot!), but this my friends brings the thunder!!

delphe

ajrod27 wrote:Hi Russell, can you provide the technical specs on the wine? PH, TA, Cooperage, blend, Brix at harvest and other number related things you might have available. We like numbers!

hello,
I am the winemaker and the numbers are my thing so here they are :-)
pH 3.44, TA 6.4 g/l.
This is a blend of 4 differents PN clones in the vineyard: Pommard, 115, 114 and 667. I did 30% new oak mainly american oak and Hungarian, M+ toast non toasted heads, 18 month in barrel before bottling, Brix were between 23.7 to 24.5 at harvest.
I hope it helps, if you have anymore questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
Delphine Gladhart

hpatelmd

I'm in GA, & just ordered this x 2, got confirmation too. So anybody else in GA who wants this, just place your order, & make sure shipping address is your own (previously, if unable to ship to GA, it would default to AL or some other state)

kylemittskus

losthighwayz wrote:Thanks. RPM alluded to this being more fruity less OR style hence my question. I enjoy CA pinots best

I didn't read the previous reviews. With RPM's comment in mind, perhaps the fact my bottle was flawed skewed my taste beyond what I thought. I likely shouldn't answer any questions about the wine considering, and retract my previous statement. Read klez's review (perhaps he'll answer your original question) and bsevern's, as well. I haven't tasted with bsevern, but I have with klez. I trust his palate.

"If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine." -Rainer Maria Rilke

"Champagne is a very kind and friendly thing on a rainy night." -Isak Dinesen

trifecta

rjquillin wrote:If you want to buy/hold, I'll do a 3/3 split with ya and PP funds.

Thanks for the offer, but space is the issue. Picking up winebid cases and club shipments soon. CT shows only a few spots open right now. btw, we are thinking of planning a trip to SD and will soon be asking for suggestions.

dalematthew

rjquillin wrote:Got six of this on a previous Woot! back in Aug of 2012. Only opened one so far when we took a 2009 Wall chard and this to a Red Lobster (no corkage fees) in October during one of their shrimp promos, and we had, shrimp, all different kinds and preparations of, shrimp.

This followed the Wall that all liked and was also very well received by the two couples, as there was none left at the end of the evening.

My wife loved that Wall chard - I bought a lot of it for her. I believe that was the last of it under that winery's name though (and last I saw of it on Woot).

btw - was in for a set of this Pinot last night. Thx for the notes all.

klezman

losthighwayz wrote:Thanks for the detailed notes! One question: would you say this is coser to typical Oregon or Sonoma Pinto? Or somewhere in between? Did you try the Swami offered here? Thanks

Hard to say - I'm not an expert in Oregon PN by any means and I did not try the Swami. At first glance I'd say somewhere in between. It's got the acidity I associate with Oregon (more acidity than Sonoma Coast), more earth and less mushroom (again more of the OR variant), but much lighter style than, say, Expression 44 Roserock. Does that help?

ryall12

bsevern wrote:For under $15 a bottle, this is a killer deal IMHO. Most value play Pinots do not bring the thunder (heck most don't even taste like Pinot!), but this my friends brings the thunder!!

Okay between the above review and klezman's great notes I went in. I was still debating over the cost but that big blinking button pushed me right over the edge to act fast! Bought 2... do not like paying over $15 a bottle. Hope it is as good as everyone is saying and we really do have a real 'bring the thunder' pinot for under 15 here, I am excited.

(rant warning)
Maybe the tax after instead of rolled into the price is a mental thing but its hard to see an extra $14 slapped on the price. I paid 14.90 per bottle, would have been 13.75 sans tax. So I basically feel like I paid for 13 bottles but am getting 12.
(end rant)

The important part is this sounds like a great value at $15 or less so get in before the blinking button gets any bigger!

* edit - wow, just made it. Bought / posted at 5:10 pm now sold out by 5:40 pm. Congrats to all who got in and the winery, seems like we have a good one here!

pienka

Sad I missed this. Pressed place order then my child woke up from surgery and I got distracted. Just came back and realized that it hadn't processed. Went back to it and dang...sold out. Bring it back at this price point and I'm all over this woot

wintershillvineyard

losthighwayz

klezman wrote:Hard to say - I'm not an expert in Oregon PN by any means and I did not try the Swami. At first glance I'd say somewhere in between. It's got the acidity I associate with Oregon (more acidity than Sonoma Coast), more earth and less mushroom (again more of the OR variant), but much lighter style than, say, Expression 44 Roserock. Does that help?

SmilingBoognish

ryall12 wrote:(rant warning)
Maybe the tax after instead of rolled into the price is a mental thing but its hard to see an extra $14 slapped on the price. I paid 14.90 per bottle, would have been 13.75 sans tax. So I basically feel like I paid for 13 bottles but am getting 12.
(end rant)

I agree with you regarding the "mental thing", and believe this will ultimately hurt Woot sales. The "sales tax included" was a good marketing ploy, imho.

ajrod27

ryall12 wrote:(rant warning)
Maybe the tax after instead of rolled into the price is a mental thing but its hard to see an extra $14 slapped on the price. I paid 14.90 per bottle, would have been 13.75 sans tax. So I basically feel like I paid for 13 bottles but am getting 12.
(end rant)

SmilingBoognish wrote:I agree with you regarding the "mental thing", and believe this will ultimately hurt Woot sales. The "sales tax included" was a good marketing ploy, imho.

How is ‘tax after’ any different than what your local store charges when purchasing wine, or any other taxable product for that matter? It’s convenient to have the tax rolled into the price, but it’s not a nuisance to have it added afterwards; it’s a common practice and hopefully this change will bring us new deals with wineries who were not a fan of rolling in the tax.

noslensj

ajrod27 wrote:How is ‘tax after’ any different than what your local store charges when purchasing wine, or any other taxable product for that matter? It’s convenient to have the tax rolled into the price, but it’s not a nuisance to have it added afterwards; it’s a common practice and hopefully this change will bring us new deals with wineries who were not a fan of rolling in the tax.

From the standpoint of the winery, collecting sales tax is difficult because it's often difficult to know exactly what the tax is for an individual purchaser. In states that have sales taxes, there are often layers of local jurisdiction that have added sales tax on top of the state sales tax - municipalities, transit districts, counties, etc.

From the standpoint of operating a winery hooking up with an entity such as wine.woot which (probably thanks to Amazon) is set up to accurately determine tax rate. Once you have that set up, it's easy after that to start charging the correct tax rate to purchasers and stop having purchasers in low to zero-sales tax status subsidizing buyers in high tax states.

boatman72

klezman wrote:I met a friend at Harvest Moon the other day and was handed a bottle of this to try. Good thing I drank it over the last couple days, eh?

Right after removing the wax cork topper (not a wax-dipped top, just a small disc of wax...not to worry for those of you who hate wax seals) I poured molarchae and myself a small glass. She can put up her own notes later, so here are mine. Colour was brilliant, limpid brick red. Maybe with a slight blueish hue. The aromas were not entirely what I expected from an Oregon Pinot Noir: cherry, earth, a bit of spice. Letting it sit for 30 seconds some stewed strawberry came out. I didn't get a hint of the mushroom aromas I often expect. First sip I was astounded at how bright and lively this wine was. The acid was brilliant with the flavours coming form the pomegranate and strawberry axis. There was some minerality and zippiness on the sides of my tongue and it left me with a bit of a sensation of chalkiness. The finish was *long* and primarily mushroom with a hint of smoke. The residual sensation on my tongue lasted what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably more like 30 seconds. Alcohol is labeled 14.5% but I'd have guessed closer to 12.5%.

About half an hour later, the second glass was poured. My first impression was that it hadn't changed in character at all, although all the previous notes had intensified somewhat. I suppose that was a good sign of things to come. It went decently well with a tomato-based pasta sauce, much to my surprise, although that did tend to bring out the minerality in the wine. The one thing that did continue to evolve was that the fruit started to get slightly muted and the wine got more muscular as it sat there in the glass.

After glass #2, recorked the wine using a nifty device we can talk about another day. It sat there on the counter until I arrived home from work tonight at 8pm (yeah, a long day) at which point I couldn't wait to open it and see how it evolved.

I was not disappointed. It had gotten bigger and burlier with its day of rest. The chalky quality and spiciness had increased while a mushroomy quality had asserted itself a bit more. Excellent. After being open for another half hour or so, it continued to open up and seemed to develop some complexity. The bottle didn't last long tonight...it's joined the other dead soldiers.

Bottom line: at $20/bottle it's a fair price that provides moderate to good value. At $13.33/bottle, this is approaching D'Ontspille le Black for QPR. It's not 1er Cru Burgundy, but what is for $13? If you like your Pinot Noir to taste and feel like Syrah, this is not for you. If you prefer a Pinot with a little bit of grace and elegance at a lighter weight then you will certainly be happy with your set from Winter's Hill. It's likely not one for the ages, but I suspect this will improve for a few more years yet but will provide much pleasure now. PnP for maximal lightness and let it air for a little while to bring out its more muscular side.

Got down this far and it's 9:50 PM EST...excellent review...best in a long time and it's sold out! After you described the wine, I could actually taste it. Excellent, Excellent!!!!!!!!!

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